Medicine: Education:Written question - 7817

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons the Service Increment for Teaching funding allocation process is subject to the market forces factor; and what steps he plans to take to ensure that there is not an excessive regional disparity in allocations of that funding between London and non-London medical schools.

The funding for training placements in secondary care is allocated to placement providers by Health Education England using a tariff payment mechanism. These tariffs are calculated on the basis of average costs and do not take into account some features of cost that are likely to vary across the country. The tariffs are therefore adjusted by the Market Forces Factor in order to compensate for the cost differences of providing training placements in different parts of the country.